Nation of Change

Despite being tasked to defend public health, the USDA instead continues to not only go against public interest, but recklessly endanger the public with unacceptable and outright ludicrous policies that threaten your health on a routine basis. Perhaps most compelling is the fact that not only does the USDA allow for the widespread use of GMO crops, which have been pinpointed by scientific research as harmful to your health, but the USDA has now announced that they will be extraditing the approval process for these genetically modified creations.

What’s more, the organization actually said that one major hurdle they had to face when speeding up the regulation process — which cuts the regulatory time period in which GMO crops are studied for safety in half — was public interest. Does this sound like an organization that actually cares about your health? Here are 4 proofs that the USDA cares more about securing corporate profits than your health.

Could it be possible that the USDA is actually turning a blind eye to the known adverse effects of Monsanto’s GMO crops, such as organ damage, in order to secure Monsanto’s growth and subsequent sales? In the original Bloomberg report announcing that the USDA was giving a ‘special’ speed review for Monsanto’s future crops, experts explained that the move was to secure the financial future of Monsanto — not to help farmers, citizens, or the United States.

Steve Censky, chief executive officer of the American Soybean Association, states it quite plainly. This is a move to help Monsanto and other biotechnology giants get an edge over competition.

“It is a concern from a competition standpoint,” Censky said in a telephone interview.The same statements are re-iterated by analyst Jeff Windau in the same interview: “If you can reduce the approval time, you get sales that much faster,” said Windau

If you can reduce the approval time, then you can get sales much faster – an act of sacrificing legitimate safety measures for corporate gain.

Bees are at the core of our agricultural system, so with the news that they are dying off quite quickly, you would think that the USDA would do everything in its power to get to the root of the problem. This, of course, is not the case. While there have been a number of theories behind the downfall of the bee population, one leaked document revealed that a bee-killing pesticide put in use by the EPA may be to blame. Further records show that the USDA was fully aware of this fact, and just let it happen.

Amazingly, the USDA also knew the pesticide was a threat to human health. Still, they did nothing.

Mutant insects don’t seem to bother the USDA either. Despite reports — including one by the EPA — that Monsanto’s Bt crops are spawning heavily resistant ‘mutated’ insects, the USDA continues to allow these crops on your dinner table. Bt is a ‘biopesticide‘ toxin incorporated into genetically modified crops in order to kill different insects, though it is highly ineffective. At least 8 populations of insects have developed resistance, with 2 populations resistant to Bt sprays and at least 6 species resistant to Bt crops as a whole.

As a result, significantly more pesticides must be used to make up for the failed GMO crops.

In a move that really shows that the USDA doesn’t care about what you have to say (the very individuals the organization was created to work for), the organization recently approved Monsanto’s ‘drought tolerant’ genetically engineered corn despite massive opposition. They gave the green light to Monsanto despite receiving nearly 45,000 public comments voicing opposition and only 23 comments in favor since comments opened.